Last week saw the end of the club’s internal winter competitions, where members were allocated to divisions 1,2 and 3 to compete in all-play-all sections. We had started back in September with 14 players in division 1, 10 players in division 2 and an unknown number in division 3 to accommodate new members as they arrived through the season.
Division 1, seen as the “club championship” was extremely competitive with players expected to play twice against everyone else in the section. It became obvious partway through the season it was too much to expect everyone to fulfill an obligation to play 28 games, especially with 5 teams playing in the North Staffs League. Accordingly numbers were reduced to 10 with those remaining facing a maximum of 18 games. The tournament was eventually won by Harry Gardiner with a superb score of 11.5/14 to become club champion. Harry was pushed all the way by Martin Burns, who finished as runner-up with 10/14. Neville Layhe steadily moved up the table to finish 3rd with 8.5/15. It was great to see the level of commitment as 8 players managed to play 11 or more games.
Division 2 did not have the same impact on those involved, and saw the level of competition fade dramatically after christmas. This is reflected in the final scores with Nigel Gardner winning the section on a score of 6/7 having not played a game since January, and Lee Tilton finishing 2nd with a score of 5/7 likewise being unable to play since January.
Division 3 saw some new faces join in the competition with a total of 9 members participating. The stand out performers here were Mike Keenan with 5/5 and Oskar Jarzynski 5/6 sharing the 1st prize.
Congratulations to all the winners:
Div 1- Harry Gardiner; Div 2 – Nigel Gardiner and Div 3’s joint winners – Mike Keenan and Oskar Jarzynski